


Pearl, which Breakfast Friend are you?

by orphan_account



Series: Which Crying Breakfast Friend are you? [2]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Just Warning, Not really though, brief mentions of Homeworld, something that could be taken as implicated suicide, this is super short and more fluffy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-16
Updated: 2015-11-16
Packaged: 2018-05-02 00:42:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5227307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Why am I a crying piece of kitchenware?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pearl, which Breakfast Friend are you?

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry it's shorter! Hope you enjoy nonetheless.

**Pearl is strong.**

She is strong when her corporeal form is hurt for the first time. She spends a few hours inside her gem, instinctively knowing what to do. Her arms are wrapped around her knees, her toes pointed inward, her head bowed. She floats in pure whiteness and her mind is as smooth and clear as the person she was made to be, and she knows what to do. 

She knows she must have been damaged because her Pearl form isn't as attractive as some of the others she's seen wandering the streets. It's her first regeneration, and her very first form was very plain. So she knows what to do. 

She knows she needs to be more beautiful than all those other Pearls. She's seen them in the trash compactors, those Pearls that weren't up to scratch, lying with deep ravines through them. Pearl watches the metal teeth of the compactors squash her kin into dust and blow away in the breeze, and later that night she goes to her quarters (after helping her mistress, Jet, fix on new limb enhancers) and she faces the mirror hung on the wall. 

Her hair is short and tall. She's tried her best to fleck it with dusted white, but she thinks the colour will come out. Pink silk flows from her shoulders, and her short blue dress cuts sharply at her waist. She is the nicest Pearl she thought she could be. 

The next time her corporeal form retreats into the gem, she tells herself she must be prettier. 

The prettiest. 

And she is strong when, time and time again, she's sent to that white place full of bliss and unthinking happiness. 

"You need to stop," says Rose. She doesn't pity. She doesn't understand, either, but she empathises and her hands brush Pearl's cheek, soft as a blush. "Pearl. Why do you change every time?"

"I like it," Pearl juts her chin out in defiance and dares Rose to say otherwise. 

Next time she's destroyed, she wakes up in Rose's arms. She hasn't changed. Rose doesn't say anything; Pearl doesn't, either, but they share a secret smile, and some other things. 

Some other things, indeed.

 

**Pearl is different.**

"Peridot keeps saying those weird things about you," Amethyst says one warm summer morning. "I don't like them."

"Pardon?" Pearl hums, not really paying attention as she stacks Steven's books in her arms.

Amethyst follows. "Peridot keeps saying that you're tidying up because you were made to, and that you're meant to stand and look pretty, and that you shouldn't really have a weapon, and that you're plain. A defective. I don't think it's cool of her, but she doesn't take me seriously."

Pearl halts with her back to the purple Gem, feels her heart hammer in her chest. "Peridot is from Homeworld. They have a few different ideologies to us here on Earth," she manages to say calmly. 

"Pearl?" Amethyst's voice is curiously hesitant.

Pearl wishes Peridot would just leave and go back to Homeworld, far away from them. "Yes, Amethyst?"

"Rose didn't think you were a defective."

Trust Amethyst, the least empathetic of them all, to understand Pearl's stiff demeanour of recent days. Pearl clears her throat. "Yes, I'm very aware of that, now-"

"I don't think you are, either."

"I-"

"No one here is defective, Pearl."

"Oh,  _Amethyst."_ Pearl folds herself down on to Steven's neatly-made bed and doesn't allow herself to wince when Amethyst throws herself down, messing the sheets. "Amethyst, you-"

"Because you seem very annoyed about it and I noticed and I thought that youneededareminder," Amethyst blurts out. Her cheeks colour faintly darker than the rest of her. "Sorry."

"Don't be. You never... you were never at Homeworld. You don't know - it's very different to Rose's rule," Pearl says absently. "Very hierarchical. Us Pearls, we were created as a serving class to look pretty. And I don't, so in Peridot's eyes, I'm defective."

"I think you're-!"

Pearl smiles tiredly at Amethyst's righteous indignation. Only she is allowed to insult Pearl, of course. "I know, but you haven't seen other Pearls. And you... well, you've seen Jasper. As a quartz type, you were born just a little smaller-"

"Defective."

"Different. Rose never judged you for your size, and neither should you," Pearl admonishes. "And Garnet..."

"Peridot said that fusion is  _disgusting._ Like Rainbow Quartz and Garnet didn't walk around all the time!"

Pearl flushes, although she knows Amethyst can't know the social stigma attached to constant fusion. Garnet is a loving relationship, that's plain to see, but to Amethyst fusion is something friends do to save their adopted son, or to have fun. "On Homeworld, constant fusion is defective."

There's a long silence. 

"Homeworld sucks," Amethyst says decisively. Her hands snake around Pearl's waist and hug, quick and tight, and then the purple Gem is running away from any sign of outward affection. 

Pearl smiles at her hands. 

 

**Pearl is in love.**

"I love you."

"I-" 

"Pearl, I know you." Rose's fingers rub comforting circles in Pearl's hands, "If you don't feel the same way, nothing has changed. I want you to know that."

Pearl turns away. Her throat feels sore, squashed, although she knows there's nothing wrong with it. Ruby, Sapphire and Amethyst have left the room, oddly. Pearl wonders if this was planned. "But Rose..." she trails off. "I don't know. I don't understand."

"I'll help. What is it?"

Pearl looks helplessly at Rose, "I don't  _know!"_

She sees Rose's eyes, sees the moment Rose decides to take a different approach. "Ruby and Sapphire. Garnet."

Pearl nods. 

"They're in love."

Pearl imagines Rose's hand in hers, soft lips against her cheek, laughter on sunny days, the feeling of doing anything to keep her safe. The euphoria to fuse and the unwillingness to part. 

"I love you, too."

And with one cry of laughter, Pearl's eyes shining and Rose's smile as wide as ever, Rainbow Quartz stands in the temple, and she is love. 

 

**Pearl is in pain.**

Rose is gone. 

And Pearl is left with the man that she could have been and the baby boy she could never imagine. 

And Pearl is left behind, and Rose is gone, and everything hurts and she wants to go back to her cold place. The void in her Gem. 

Rose is gone and Pearl has to stay for the sake of the aura in the gem. 

And Pearl is left. 

Rose is gone. 

 

 **Pearl is stronger.**  

For Steven she would do anything. 

His first words are, "I love you," as she holds him close, and he smiles up at her with eyes made of stars and Pearl sees the Rose in him and she never wants to let him go. 

"I love you, Pearlie," he chuckles. 

Pearl is choking on tears. "I love you, too, Steven," she says. "I love you very much."

And she is stronger because she wants to be, stronger, stronger for Steven. 

For Steven she would shatter a thousand times over without a second thought. 

"I love Pearlie and Amfist and Net!"

"We love you, too, Steven," Garnet says. 

And Pearl hugs him close. 

 

**Pearl is a weeping eggcup.**

"I don't want to be a crying piece of kitchenware," she says in bewilderment, but Steven looks so pleased with himself she doesn't move away. 

"You're Weeping Eggcup!" he exclaims happily, waving a sheet of stickers in the air. "You've got a person! I've got a person, too! Person high five!"

He slaps her palm and slaps a sticker on her arm, smoothing out the bumps and running off singing the theme tune. 

Pearl looks down. 

It tickles. Steven has drawn over the sad face with a bright, wobbly, pink-marker smile. 

"I'm a weeping eggcup," Pearl tells Garnet, who snorts in laughter.


End file.
